Memorandum from the Parliamentary Office

NATIONAL ASSEMBLY

FOR WRITTEN REPLY

QUESTION 1630

DATE OF PUBLICATION OF INTERNAL QUESTION PAPER: 27/05/2016

(INTERNAL QUESTION PAPER 17 OF 2016) Mr Y Cassim (DA) to ask the Minister of Higher Education and Training: (1) How many students (a) applied for, (b) were denied and (c) were successfully granted financial aid from the National Student Financial Aid Scheme (NSFAS) for the 2016 academic year at the University of Fort Hare; (2) how many of the specified students who were granted financial aid from NSFAS have (a) signed their loan agreement and (b) received (i) the full amount, (ii) part of the amount and (iii) none of the amount; (3) (a) how much funding has been assigned by NSFAS to the specified (i) university and/or (ii) students at the specified university for the 2016 academic year and (b) what amount of the specified funding (i) has already been transferred by the specified university and (ii) remains available to be transferred?

NW1800E

REPLY:

1. (a) 9 854 University of Fort Hare (UFH) students applied for financial aid from the National Student Financial Aid Scheme (NSFAS). (b) 542 UFH students who had applied for financial aid from NSFAS were unsuccessful and were not awarded financial aid.

(c) 8 889 UFH students were successful in their NSFAS applications. The remainder of the students would have applied elsewhere and could have been successful.

2. (a) Of the 8 889 successful students, 7 605 students have signed their loan forms. Students receiving bursaries will not have to sign loan forms.

(b) (i) All successful students have been awarded the full funding for which they had applied. At this stage in the financial year, no student would have received the full funding allocated to them.

(ii) The university has received some of the allocated funds as shown in the table below. NSFAS does not have information regarding which students have received some of their funding. UFH will have to be approached to provide this information.

(iii) NSFAS does not have information regarding which students, if any, have not yet received any funding. UFH will have to be approached to provide this information.

It should be noted that UFH applies the full funding model in terms of the Means Test and all students are assessed accordingly. Applications for Honours Students are still open for the current academic year and the above figures will increase once the applications for 2016 have closed and financial aid is awarded.

3. (a) The total amount of funding allocated by NSFAS to UFH for student financial aid (from all funding streams) for the 2016 academic year is R819 million, as indicated in the table below. Of this, R89.9 million has already been transferred by NSFAS to the university in the form of upfront payments and in-year payments against claims on the DHET Loan fund.

(3 b)(i)Payments Amount (3b)(i)Upfront in addition to Allocated Transfer Category Description Upfront transfer R R R NSFAS DHET Loan 102 065 099 30 619 530 5 353 829 NSFAS DHET Teacher Education 1 756 454 526 936 (3 b)(i)Payments Amount (3b)(i)Upfront in addition to Allocated Transfer Category Description Upfront transfer DHET Final Year Funding 58 988 779 17 696 634 Funza Lushaka 52 180 550 19 650 000 Social Development: National 11 349 415 NSFAS DHET Disability 1 828 553 548 566 NSFAS National Dept. of Agriculture 595 313 280 000 NSFAS DHET NSF 47 492 949 14 247 885 NSFAS NSF General Bursary Fund 1 736 964 NSFAS: EC Scholarship 50 000 NSFAS DMV Bursary 1 436 000 NSFAS DOL/Strategic Based Fund 11 706 630 NSFAS Historic Debt 315 259 367 NSFAS NSF Post Graduate Funding 3 327 880 998 364 NSFAS NSF NIHSS 2 142 000 NSFAS KGODISO* Loan Fund 208 041 930 TOTAL 819 957 883 84 567 915 5 353 829

Note: * The KGODISO Loan Fund is the additional funding received from National Treasury in the 2016/17 financial year to support the un- and under-funded continuing students to complete their qualifications.

(b) (i) All funding allocations to UFH have been communicated and allocated to the respective students under the various categories, with the exception of the National Skills Fund Post Graduate Funding category, where applications have not yet been closed. This will be allocated to students during the second semester. (ii) See above table. COMPILER/CONTACT PERSONS:

DIRECTOR – GENERAL

STATUS:

QUESTION 1630 APPROVED/NOT APPROVED/AMENDED

Dr BE NZIMANDE, MP

MINISTER OF HIGHER EDUCATION AND TRAINING

STATUS: